A new virtual reality MMORPG launches, known as Sword Art Online. Only 10000 copies are sold in the first printing.

Our main character, Kirito, was a beta tester for the game and he logs in. He meets a guy called Klein who just started and wants some advice on the basics.

This RPG focuses mainly on sword skills with no magic involved.

As Klein tries to log out, he finds there to be no logout option.

After a while the two are suddenly teleported to town. The game creator Kayaba Akihiko appears. He explains that the lack of a logout button is a feature of the game. You can’t log out and no one can log out or remove the headgear required to play this game from the outside. If attempted the headgear will kill you, 213 players have already died. Also, if you die in game you die in real life. Only escape is to complete the game by reaching the 100th floor of Aincrad and beat the final boss.

The last thing the GM leaves behind is a mirror revealing who you are in real life, undoubtedly causing some funness.

With a will to survive, Kirito heads out for the next village alone.

Time skips a month ahead, 2000 people died, floor 1 is yet to be cleared.

Thoughts:

Intriguing start, a lovely setting and storyline for a MMORPG and Fantasy lover like me. It’s definitely got my attention and I want to watch on. However my concerns of this turning into a standard fantasy story without tying to the real world is there, which will reduce my enjoyment of the series. So I still wonder how they’ll get passed that, or rather, will they get passed that? This first episode of course was quite attached to the real world, what with real death being a possibility, using that mirror to reveal the true identities of players, and people logging on with a nerve head gear system thing. I only hope they can still throw in hints of the real world to keep it ‘realistic’ in a sense, ironic… I think a way Accel World did it was that the avatars were all robotic so they were already detached from any typical fantasy story.

Anyway, a nice way to introduce us into the game with the main guy teaching a newbie. Although there wasn’t really that much to say, some game mechanics and explanations are better than none. Just like the game creator explaining everything.

I loved the mirror revealing everything as is, shows the dangers of the internet. I have some online friends, but I’m always careful, sometimes a bit too careful and may seem a bit rude. But hey, can’t be too safe. The amount of boys being girls online is aplenty, you don’t see many girls being guys online, either that or I don’t play enough MMOs, well I try to break that trend. I do it because it’s funny, and most guys probably do too, love a fun reaction from the guy you’re talking to. But always got to be wary of those with ulterior motives… A nice warning the anime gives about the type of people you can meet online…

I do have to criticise a few things. Firstly is the ending that was a time skip. The skip itself is not what I’m criticising as it’s necessary to introduce everything in the first episode to start from day 1 and then nothing interesting happens until a month later, I can accept that. What I can’t accept is how people survived in the real world for a month. They’ve been linked up to a headgear with no food or drink, if they don’t get anything in a few days they’ll start to wither away in the real world. I think because that wasn’t mentioned it drags it away from reality a little. I mean you could’ve easily shown a real life T.V. report of everyone in hospital and linked up with those nutrient drip things to provide their daily needs. That would be more than enough, but giving nothing makes it very unrealistic. I’m hoping they’ll say something next episode.

Another thing is that, sure the headgear’s got an internal battery, but no battery lasts forever. Why not unplug the headgear and then wait for the battery to run out? Don’t remember the GM saying anything about not being able to unplug the headgear. And when you’re running something as powerful as this massive game, the battery really shouldn’t be able to last more than a month.

Apart from Kirito we’re still lacking that very important female character from our main characters. I’m looking forward to seeing who that girl is, and how much Kirito has developed in a month online. Let’s see if they can still ‘keep it real’ in the next episode then.